Research at TravelBuddy247 — Explainable, Fair Matching

Most apps decide who you see with a black box. TravelBuddy247 takes a different approach: every match comes with a clear reason ("you both speak Hindi", "you're both into coffee & hiking"), and we measure whether those recommendations are actually fair across different groups of people.

This makes TravelBuddy247 both a real product and a small, honest research effort into how people discover and connect with each other online.

What we study

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Explainable matching

Every suggested connection comes with a transparent, rule-based reason — not a hidden score.

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Fairness

We measure whether people are shown and chosen fairly across gender, nationality, and language.

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Transparency

We keep a versioned, auditable record of how matches are scored, so the system can be checked.

How we use data — responsibly

Research only ever uses pseudonymized data, and only if you opt in. That means:

Your activity is identified only by a random research code — never your name, email, phone, photos, or message content.
We study patterns across groups, not individuals.
Participation is optional and you can withdraw any time in your profile settings.

You control this. The research opt-in lives in your profile settings, it is off by default, and turning it off stops any future research use. See our Privacy Policy for the full details.

Working with academia

We're a small, independent team based in Saarbrücken, and we'd like to collaborate with universities and research groups on fairness and transparency in matching. If you're a researcher interested in explainable, consent-based recommendation data from a live platform, we'd love to talk.

Get in touch: research@travelbuddy247.com